Certain motor vehicles are nowadays fitted with image-capturing means, particularly cameras, to assist the driver notably in parking and/or reversing manoeuvres. The clearer the image acquired by the image-capturing means, the more useful will be the information supplied to the driver.
The present invention falls within this context and has the objective of proposing a camera cleaning device that is particularly effective. To this end, one subject of the invention is a cleaning device for cleaning a lens of a motor vehicle camera designed to capture images along a longitudinal optical axis, and in which there is a bearing head bearing cleaning means, positioned at least in part around the camera and arranged in such a way that part of the head is positioned along the optical axis behind the lens, in a fixed position with respect to the camera, and advantageously out of the field of view of the camera.
What is meant here by “behind the lens” is a position in which the part of the head behind the lens on the optical axis is positioned between the lens and the road scene that the lens contributes to capturing. Moreover, what is meant by a position of the cleaning device that is “outside the field of the camera” is the fact that part of the cleaning device that is behind the lens does not impede the camera in capturing elements of the road scene in the direct vicinity of the vehicle such that the driving aid information supplied to the driver is reliable and useful, especially since it is particularly clear thanks to the regular use of the cleaning means according to the invention.
The fact that the cleaning head is fixed with respect to the camera simplifies the structure of the cleaning device which has no moving part. The bulk of the cleaning device is thus easy to take into consideration when installing the device in a motor vehicle, and the simplicity of manufacture and the lasting reliability of the device are improved in relation to existing systems.